The Plastic Dilemma
Collection:CSM Museum & Study Collection
Date: 2025
Artist: Suzanne Abell
Medium: Video timelapse, PETG resin printing filament, photo etch prints, single use plastic bottle, photograph of Grad Show Installation
Object number: F.2025.16.CC.1-6
Description1: set of 3 artist prints
2: 1st ouroboros model
3. 2nd ouroboros model
4. degraded plastic bottle
5. photograph of lab work
6. set of short films
The Plastic Dilemma explores the possibility of a circular plastic economy using naturally occurring enzymes to degrade single use plastic (PET plastic) back into it's original constituents.
Description by the artist:
My work was based around an installation designed to represent the possibility
of circularity within plastic recycling using a naturally occurring enzyme.
The creation of a ‘homemade’ bioreactor working on the laboratory style bench
demonstrated the potential of this bacterium derived enzyme to breakdown a plastic
bottle into its constituent parts. The bottle is suspended in a bath of enzyme liquid, and it
is kept at a specific pH and temperature to ensure optimum working conditions for the
enzyme. The 3D printer working during the exhibition suggested how the degraded plastic
constituents may be reformed into new products without loss of quality. It was printing
with a form of plastic filament known as PETG. Various little examples of experiments
using the enzyme were working throughout the length of the exhibition Two of the short
videos show the use of agarose and powdered plastic particles, mixed to form a white
opaque jelly. Once an enzyme liquid is added the jelly turns clear as the enzyme breaks
down the plastic into its constituent molecules.
I have also included a degraded plastic bottle and a 3D printed Ouroboros. Ouroboros is an ancient symbol of regeneration and circularity, with a snake eating its own tail and I have used this symbol to represent the overall integrity of my theme. Photo-etch prints of the surface of the enzyme degraded plastic, viewed under the microscope, are some of the printworks I did alongside my experiments in the Grow Lab.
2: 1st ouroboros model
3. 2nd ouroboros model
4. degraded plastic bottle
5. photograph of lab work
6. set of short films
The Plastic Dilemma explores the possibility of a circular plastic economy using naturally occurring enzymes to degrade single use plastic (PET plastic) back into it's original constituents.
Description by the artist:
My work was based around an installation designed to represent the possibility
of circularity within plastic recycling using a naturally occurring enzyme.
The creation of a ‘homemade’ bioreactor working on the laboratory style bench
demonstrated the potential of this bacterium derived enzyme to breakdown a plastic
bottle into its constituent parts. The bottle is suspended in a bath of enzyme liquid, and it
is kept at a specific pH and temperature to ensure optimum working conditions for the
enzyme. The 3D printer working during the exhibition suggested how the degraded plastic
constituents may be reformed into new products without loss of quality. It was printing
with a form of plastic filament known as PETG. Various little examples of experiments
using the enzyme were working throughout the length of the exhibition Two of the short
videos show the use of agarose and powdered plastic particles, mixed to form a white
opaque jelly. Once an enzyme liquid is added the jelly turns clear as the enzyme breaks
down the plastic into its constituent molecules.
I have also included a degraded plastic bottle and a 3D printed Ouroboros. Ouroboros is an ancient symbol of regeneration and circularity, with a snake eating its own tail and I have used this symbol to represent the overall integrity of my theme. Photo-etch prints of the surface of the enzyme degraded plastic, viewed under the microscope, are some of the printworks I did alongside my experiments in the Grow Lab.